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Risk assessments under way at Okaloosa schools (GALLERY)

LEFT: Wayne Blocker, electrician with the Okaloosa County School District, installs wiring for a video camera Thursday at Pryor Middle School.
RIGHT: John Jamieson, left, and Dennis Bowling with the Okaloosa County School District’s maintenance department inspect Pryor Middle School on Thursday to determine how to improve safety.

NICK TOMECEK / Daily News

By KATIE TAMMEN / Daily News

Published: Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 07:31 PM.

Okaloosa County school officials are identifying more measures that can be taken to improve safety.

Maintenance workers for the school district have begun to assess each building for security strengths and weaknesses at the request of the School Board.

Board members voted last week to conduct the inspections. The action was taken at the same meeting in which they approved using emergency funding to help pay for resource officers to be placed in all schools in the wake of last month’s shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

A report on safety inspections is due Feb. 7.

“I’m just trying to see a way we can do safety in a smart way, rather than a knee-jerk reaction,” board member Dewey Destin said. “I think the security barriers that we have at the schools are at least as important as someone with a gun.”

Destin said school resource officers make sense through the rest of the school year, but wasn’t convinced yet that the $3.5 million it would cost to keep them in place next year was the best use of limited funding.

School Board Chairman Rodney Walker said he also was well aware of the financial issues, and recognized that some difficult decisions lie ahead not just for the School Board, but for the Florida Legislature and the U.S. government.

“It’s a mammoth, mammoth, tremendous project that needs to take place,” Walker said. “We’re trying to do as much as we can that’s not tied to money.”

Safety steps not tied to huge dollar signs were apparent by Thursday at schools such as Pryor Middle in Fort Walton Beach. Workers were installing a video camera outside the school even as others checked locks to classroom doors.

According to Principal Jeff Palmer, most of the safety reviews under way weren’t new, but the sense of urgency was.

Since school resumed after Christmas break, Palmer said he’s taken a little more time than usual to talk about security with staff and students. Overall, they’ve been more receptive than in the past, he added.

According to School Board member Melissa Thrush, those types of reactions are part of the reason to conduct the security assessments now.

“It’s an opportunity we have right now to seize the heightened awareness in our community,” she said. “I think it will be a process … But at the end we’ll be able to have more of a consistent message. We’ll be able to say to the public these are things we’ve reviewed.”

When the safety report is presented to the board next month, the weaknesses likely won’t be discussed in public for security reasons, but board members will consider them so a plan can be implemented before the next school year.

Board members voted last week to conduct the inspections. The action was taken at the same meeting in which they approved using emergency funding to help pay for resource officers to be placed in all schools in the wake of last month’s shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

A report on safety inspections is due Feb. 7.

“I’m just trying to see a way we can do safety in a smart way, rather than a knee-jerk reaction,” board member Dewey Destin said. “I think the security barriers that we have at the schools are at least as important as someone with a gun.”

Destin said school resource officers make sense through the rest of the school year, but wasn’t convinced yet that the $3.5 million it would cost to keep them in place next year was the best use of limited funding.

School Board Chairman Rodney Walker said he also was well aware of the financial issues, and recognized that some difficult decisions lie ahead not just for the School Board, but for the Florida Legislature and the U.S. government.

“It’s a mammoth, mammoth, tremendous project that needs to take place,” Walker said. “We’re trying to do as much as we can that’s not tied to money.”

Safety steps not tied to huge dollar signs were apparent by Thursday at schools such as Pryor Middle in Fort Walton Beach. Workers were installing a video camera outside the school even as others checked locks to classroom doors.

According to Principal Jeff Palmer, most of the safety reviews under way weren’t new, but the sense of urgency was.

Since school resumed after Christmas break, Palmer said he’s taken a little more time than usual to talk about security with staff and students. Overall, they’ve been more receptive than in the past, he added.

According to School Board member Melissa Thrush, those types of reactions are part of the reason to conduct the security assessments now.

“It’s an opportunity we have right now to seize the heightened awareness in our community,” she said. “I think it will be a process … But at the end we’ll be able to have more of a consistent message. We’ll be able to say to the public these are things we’ve reviewed.”

When the safety report is presented to the board next month, the weaknesses likely won’t be discussed in public for security reasons, but board members will consider them so a plan can be implemented before the next school year.